Appeal of Jaffe

514 A.2d 1016, 100 Pa. Commw. 498, 1986 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 2522
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 12, 1986
DocketAppeal, No. 1778 C.D. 1985
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 514 A.2d 1016 (Appeal of Jaffe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Appeal of Jaffe, 514 A.2d 1016, 100 Pa. Commw. 498, 1986 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 2522 (Pa. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge Barry,

Tins is fin appeal by Louis and Frances Jaffe, appellants, of an order of the Chester County Court of Common Pleas. The trial court dismissed the Jaffes’ appeal from a decision of the appellee, the Zoning Hearing Board of West Vincent Township (ZHB), which denied the Jaffes’ application for a use and occupancy permit for a caretaker’s apartment within a building, recently constructed to board horses on the Jaffes’ property.

The Jaffes, residents and property owners in a district zoned R-2 Residential in West Vincent Township, applied for a building permit to construct a house and a building designed to board horses. This application was granted on September 2, 1980. In December of 1981, [500]*500appellants sought a variance from the ZHB for an apartment located within this building to house a caretaker or groom for the horses. The request for a variance was denied. The Jaffes appealed to the Chester County Court of Common Pleas but abandoned this appeal. On October 14, 1982, the Jaffes applied for a use and occupancy permit pursuant to Sections 603.c and 603.f of the West Vincent Township Zoning Ordinance (Ordinance), which read:

603[.] Permitted Uses
603. c Farming and agricultural use, including horticultural and nursery, provided proper techniques are utilized to minimize erosion and sedimentation, stream pollution and preservation of existing woodlands and a lot area of no less than five (5) acres is provided.
603.f Accessory buildings and uses customarily incidental to the above uses.

This application was refused on November 15, 1982 by the zoning hearing officer. The Jaffes appealed to the ZHB. After holding two hearings, the ZHB ruled against the Jaffes, finding that since the Jaffes’ property was principally residential the building was an accessory use and the apartment was, under the ordinance, an impermissible accessory use to an accessory use. The Jaffes’ appeal to the Chester County Court of Common Pleas was denied but on different grounds. The trial court found that the building housing the horses was a “stable” as defined by Section 202 of the Ordinance, which reads:

STABLE: Any establishment including a building or structure and surrounding enclosures wherein horses or other equine animals are kept for the purpose of breeding, boarding, sale, [501]*501hunting or show purposes, and must be so constructed that such animals cannot stray therefrom.

The court said that since Section 602 of the Ordinance lists stables as a conditional use and the apartment was an accessory use to the stable, the request for a use and occupancy permit must be denied inasmuch as the Ordinance makes no provision for an accessory use to a conditional use. On appeal, the Jaifes maintain, as they have all along, that this structure is an agricultural use and the apartment is an accessory use to an agricultural use permitted under Sections 603.c and 603.f of the Ordinance. The Jaffes argue that even if this structure was considered a conditional use, under established case law, they are nevertheless entitled to the Use and Occupancy Permit because they proved that they complied with the objective requirements of the Ordinance and that there is no compelling evidence that the proposed use is a detriment to the community’s health, safety and welfare.

Where the trial court takes no additional testimony, our scope of review is limited to whether the Zoning Hearing Board abused its discretion or committed an error of law. Barnhart v. Zoning Hearing Board of Nottingham Township, 49 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 481, 411 A.2d 1266 (1980).

The Jaffes cite Zoning Hearing Board of Mahoning Township v. Zlomsowitch, 87 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 123, 486 A.2d 568 (1985), and Barnhart to support their argument that the building has an agricultural use. This reliance on Zlomsowitch and Barnhart is misplaced. In Zlomsowitch the Mahoning Township Zoning Hearing Board challenged a trial court ruling which sustained the applicants’ appeal from a Zoning Hearing Board denial of a building permit for a public stable on the applicants’ property. Section 505 of the Mahoning [502]*502Township Ordinance stated that “buildings devoted to farm use shall be exempt from area regulations.” The court stated:

The ordinance does not define the term ‘firm use’ as used in Section 505(a); it must therefore be construed according to its plain, usually understood meaning. Farmland Industries, Inc. v. Zoning Hearing Board of Pequea Township, 65 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 288, 442 A.2d 395 (1982). The term ‘agricultural use’ is synonomous [sic] with form use as that term is used in Section 505(a). A stable is a familiar structure used for farm and agricultural purposes.

Zlomsowitch, 87 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. at 126, 486 A.2d at 569. The Jafies argue that since this court defined a stable as “a familiar structure used for farm and agricultural purposes” we must hold that the Jaffe horse stalls are an agricultural use; however, contrary to the Ordinance in Zlomsowitch, Section 202 of the Ordinance specifically provides for a definition of “stable”. In Zlomsowitch we emphasized that words must be given their plain meaning when not otherwise defined by the ordinance. Here, the ordinance’s definition of stable includes the keeping of horses for any purpose, whether commercial or private. The Jafies’ building falls squarely within this definition.

In Barnhart, the issue was whether the boarding of horses was a permissible agricultural use under the statute. We found that the language of the ordinance permitted such a use because the relevant statute defined agriculture as including “pasturage” and the stipulated facts indicated that the horses were pastured on either a full-time or part-time basis. The Ordinance here (West Vincent Township) contains specific provisions defining “stables” which must be accepted in preference to the general definition defining “agricul[503]*503ture”. See Section 1933 of the Statutory Construction Act of 1972, 1 Pa. C. S. §1933.

Given the definition of stable in the ordinance and the provision setting forth the permitted conditional uses, we do not believe that even a permissively broad reading of the definitions of “agriculture” or “stable” would include the Jafies’ proposed use of their building.1 The trial court correctly interpreted and applied the ordinance when it found that the proposed apartment was an accessory use to a conditional use. The court also properly concluded that an accessory use to a conditional use, since not listed under the ordinance as a permitted use, was, logically, an impermissible one. The Jafies object to this conclusion, citing Gilbert v. Montgomery Township Zoning Hearing Board, 58 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 296, 427 A.2d 776 (1981), to support their claim that more than one principal use of land is permitted. In Gilbert,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
514 A.2d 1016, 100 Pa. Commw. 498, 1986 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 2522, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/appeal-of-jaffe-pacommwct-1986.